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Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Value Studies

Alright, so inspiration hit as I was working on that Monet tree. One "scene" that often captivates me is hearing the wind blow through my trees and seeing the sunlight dance on the leaves. When I've had enough of life and need a break, I often go out in my back garden and watch the trees in the light - and if it's dark, I just listen. Fourteen of my trees are hybrid poplars, they have big waxy leaves that shine when the sun hits them. They make the most wonderful sound when the wind slaps the leaves together. I just love hearing that sound and watching the light.

Seems like a Monet moment doesn't it? Anyhoo, I've been playing with how to capture that. I started out wanting to do a large chunk of tree. Then I moved to a couple branches with clouds and sky behind. Then downsized to a clump. I'm currently down to around five leaves and blue in the background. Well, no harm in starting small.

I decided to do my value studies in a new way this time. I read Jana Bouc's post about Copic markers and value studies (found via Katherine's web roundup). I so had to try that. Above you see my efforts. I think I love these markers for this sort of thing - very quick to color a space, two tips to use for line and blocking in. My only regret is that I don't have a more middle gray, I just couldn't quite gauge the colors ordering online. I shall have to remedy that, soon.

Thanks Katherine. I really like how quickly the markers go down for this sort of thing. With a pencil, you have to work much harder to get a big dark area. Oh, and thanks for trying with your label. I'm sure that I am not the only one who references your weekly posts and so wants to find them later.